The fencing at the rear of the grass area in Baxter Street along the boundary with Blyth Street has completely fallen over – see below:

The residents who live in the area tell me that the fence was originally erected by the City Council and I therefore contacted the council about getting this sorted. The fence itself looks sound – it simply needs new posts and to then be re-erected.

I am pleased to say that the City Council has agreed to do this and I am advised, “.. the fence was instructed to be uplifted .. (and we) will be having this re-erected in the near future.”

These photos from the Retro Dundee blog are of the City Road/Blyth Street/Baxter Street area from the mid 1980s. Unlike the photo yesterday from the Hawkhill area, the area around City Road remains basically the same today, albeit that some of the buildings are no longer there:

Last night, I attended an extremely productive meeting of the Tay Bridge Rail Disaster Memorial Group that took place at the Riverview Station restaurant, near to where we wish to see the proposed memorial erected :

Above : Around the site at Riverside where we would like to see the Memorial erected

Above : Stuart Morris of Balgonie, group chair, with his presentation about the disaster

This morning, I had a useful update from City Development Department officers on the project at the proposed Riverside Nature Park. There is excellent progress and a report to committee will come forward later this month.

After a meeting with the Chief Executive of the City Council and senior officers, other groups leaders, the Lord Provost and Depute Lord Provost on a number of issues, followed by my surgery at Blackness Primary School, I attended the Harris Academy Parent Council meeting tonight – unusually, at the former Rockwell High School site (see below), where we were given a guided tour of what will be the school “decant” facility during the forthcoming modernisation project for Harris Academy. The temporary move to Rockwell undoubtedly poses challenges for the Harris staff and pupils but it is clear that the Head Teacher and his staff are well-prepared.

Lastly, my thoughts are with Kathryn and Jim Mitchell of Baxter Street, following the sudden death of their son, Ethan, aged only 7. Ethan, a Blackness Primary School pupil, died of a brain tumour and his gran Catherine Smart gave a moving tribute to Ethan in today’s Courier.

During the past week, I was speaking with residents in Baxter Street about their street lighting concerns.

There is – because of additional lighting that was installed when new housing was built on the south side – an imbalance of lighting columns, with fewer on the north side. A lamp standard on the south side was knocked over recently and this made the immediate area (and in particular on the north side opposite the damaged column) very dark indeed.

Thankfully the lighting column has now been replaced and the wattage of the light has been increased, which will hopefully address the concerns about the less bright northern side of the road. I paid a visit there on Thursday evening on the way to the “Community Spirit” meeting at the Mitchell Street Centre to see the situation for myself, and I have been in touch with the Street Lighting Partnership at Tayside Contracts about the situation.